Snap
by Gazlover12-Canada
Summary: Due to being both stupid and clumsy, Ritsu ends up breaking his ankle in a very embarrassing way. Now Takano is overprotective, and everyone at work is fawning over him. He really needs to be more careful! Rated T, R&R!


Ritsu was not smart. Actually, he was just plain stupid! His stupidity was the reason why he was sitting in the emergency room, face buried into Takano Masamune's shoulder as he tried to will the pain in his ankle away. It was three in the morning, and he would have given anything to just be asleep right now. Then again, it was his own fault that he was here in the first place.

You see, not even an hour ago he had been in his own apartment. Because he was having trouble editing a few of the storyboards that were due tomorrow, he had been up late. But now they were finally finished, so he was going to head to bed. Then he suddenly smelled something horrible…like something was…

"Shit!" He cried, making a mad dash towards the kitchen. He'd totally forgotten that earlier he'd put an instant meal to warm in the oven. Now it was probably all burnt! About halfway to his kitchen, that was when the stupid thing had happened.

He slipped in a random puddle of water (Oh right, he had knocked over his water bottle earlier!) and fell sideways, bashing rather violently into the wall. During the slip his ankle had twisted roughly, and there was a small snapping noise.

For a moment he'd laid on the ground in shock, until finally the pain registered. His ankle was throbbing. It felt like someone had whacked it with a sledgehammer. He whimpered and clutched at it, but that only worsened the throbbing. He couldn't even move without crying out in pain.

That was why he'd done exactly what he promised himself he wouldn't do...he called his neighbor, who also happened to be his boss and ex-lover.

So here they were, sitting in the waiting room of the emergency room. Takano had came in and basically rescued him. Playing hero, the dark haired man had rushed in, turned the oven off, and then scooped him up bridal style and carried him out the the car and drive him to the emergency room.

Ritsu hadn't even said a word since his phone call asking for help. He really wasn't good with this type of pain. Once in junior high he'd broken his pinky finger, and that had been awful! Oh but this...well, he would have rather broken both his pinkies instead of this type of injury. He kept trying to keep in tears, which was very hard!

Takano had been very good through all this. Likely he had been woken up fro, Ritsu's call, but right now he seemed wide awake, arms wrapped around his true love as he calmly comforted him. He hadn't even called Ritsu an idiot yet for hurting himself, or for not cleaning up the water he'd spilled earlier!

A few minutes a nurse came into the room with a wheelchair. Takano helped him into it, and then he was brought into one of the examination rooms. When the doctor came in, all she had to do was glance at it before agreeing that it was most certainly broken. He had to get some x-rays, and after that a cast was snapped on, and he was told that it would _have _to stay on for six weeks. The doctor had also advised him to stay home from work a few days, plus he was given a pair of crutches.

…..How humiliating.

Finally he was allowed to go home, but by then it was half past four in the morning. All of the pain and tears had wore him out, so he allowed Takano to bring him out to the car before falling asleep. Before he could totally fall asleep though, his boss had make him face him and spoke only one sentence.

"We are having a very serious discussion about your safety later."

* * *

It had been 48 hours since getting his embarrassing injury. During those days, he had been forced to stay on the couch with his foot propped up on a pillow. To make it worse, Takano had been staying the night after work each night, and staying there as if it were his home.

Poor Ritsu was lectured about many things. He was yelled at for not cleaning up the water after it had spilled, just as he suspected. He was also scolded because of the mess in his apartment. He was grouched at for not remembering that there had been food in the oven.

"You don't have to be my nursemaid," The injured editor had deprecated the situation. "I can take care of myself."

"Clearly you can't!" Takano had snapped, startling the other man. "How do you think I feel when I get a call in the middle of the night and find you in tears, unable to even fucking move? Dammit Ritsu, you need to be more careful!"

Okay, that outburst had startled him a little. The brunette stared at the taller man with widened eyes, and then suddenly felt himself blushing and looking down at his hands submissively.

"...I'm sorry," He muttered.

There was a silence for a moment, and Ritsu felt a hand ruffling his hair as he was pulled into a hug. Takano rested his forehead against the smaller man's, and for a moment was silent as he closed his eyes.

"It's alright Ritsu….It's alright."

* * *

Going back to work was….horrible. That was really the only way to describe it. As soon as he entered the building with Takano at his side, all of the woman (and even some men) began fawning over him.

"Oh you poor baby!"

"Look at that cast...he must be in such pain!"

"Oh sweetie, are you sure you don't need a wheelchair?"

"Takano-san, is it true that you brought him to the hospital? You really must care about him a lot!" (This sentence caused a lot of squealing)

Ritsu had tried to get away, smiling and thanking them for their concern, but telling them that it was just a small break. That didn't seem to stop them much, but at least he was able to make it to the elevator. Oh right, Takano had also insisted upon carrying his bag too...how embarrassing. However, the women downstairs were nothing compared to the rest of the Emerald Editing team.

"Are you sure you can type Ritsu? I can help if you want.." Mino suggested.

"It's just my ankle that hurts...I'm fine," Ritsu replied with a forced smile.

"Can I sign your cast?" Kisa begged. "Please Rittie? Oh, but I won't if it'll hurt too much...are you sure you should even be coming in?"

"How long do you have to wear it for? You're taking pain medication, right?" Hatori questioned.

"He's taking a light amount of medication to keep the pain bearable, and I'm making him take frequent breaks if he shows any sign of discomfort. Kanade, I'm sure he can manage to type by himself for now. Kisa, you have permission to sign his cast, as do the rest of you." Takano answered all of their questions.

"Oi, it's my cast! You can't just give people permission to sign- ah!" Ritsu yelped as he was swarmed by the rest of his department, all eagerly awaiting with pens and markers.

"Why? I signed it, so it's only fair." His boss had replied with a smirk. Throughout the rest of the day, random people (Some whom Ritsu had never even seen before) popped up to their floor asking permission to sign his cast. Eventually you could hardly see the while, only random colors with random names.

He was certainly going to be very more careful from now on, to avoid this terrible humiliation.

**Please leave a review and let me know what you think! **

**For some reason I just love seeing poor Ritsu in pain or embarrassed, with Takano to the rescue of course! If you have any other one-shot ideas between these two then feel free to indulge me with them! I'm still a bit new to this fandom, but I hope I am getting their characterization down!**


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